Designing Futures in Indonesia

Design is a wide reaching and unruly idea, often associated with seamless global mobility, ubiquitous consumerism, elite urban tastes, and fast paced economic growth. But design is also increasingly understood to be operating at edges, as a necessary response to the ethical and political challenges of advanced global capitalism. Design is both the problem and the solution, and effects everything. As Tony Fry writes ‘Design–the designer and designed objects, images, systems and things–shapes the form, operation, appearance and perceptions of the material world we occupy' (2009: 3).This curated issue takes as its departure point Fry’s notion that design broadly shapes the world we occupy. To ask what happens when the world we occupy is not conceived simply in terms of local issues and solutions, but rather as a set of shared concerns that are localised and play out through global flows. To do so this issue presents ten contributions from Indonesia

Eveline’s Lack of Love: An Analysis of “Eveline”

This is a character analysis essay from my English 1101 class. Based off the short story Eveline by James Joyce, I analyzed the main character, Eveline. In my essay I argue that Eveline struggles with the fact that she is less interested in Frank, her fiancé, for love but for a way out of her domestic life at home. Throughout my essay I use different critic\u27s opinions from their own analysis articles to help support and defend my thesis statement. Faculty Sponsor: Robert Dixon-Kola

The Ideal and the Real: Southern Plantation Women of the Civil War

Southern plantation women experienced a shift in identity over the course of the Civil War. Through the diaries of Catherine Edmondston and Eliza Fain, historians note the discrepancy between the ideal and real roles women had while the men were off fighting. Unique perspectives and hidden voices in their writings offer valuable insight into the life of plantation women and the hybrid identity they gained despite the Confederate loss

Reassessing 1492

American Studie

German Open Ended Funds: Was there a Valuation Problem?

In late 2005, a number of German open ended funds suffered significant withdrawals by unit holders. The crisis was precipitated by a long term bear market in German property investment and the fact that these funds offered short term liquidity to unit holders but had low levels of liquidity in the fund. A more controversial suggestion was that the crisis was exacerbated by a perception that the valuations of the fund were too infrequent and inaccurate. As units are priced by reference to these valuations with no secondary market, the valuation process is central to the process. There is no direct evidence that these funds were over-valued but there is circumstantial evidence and this paper examines the indirect evidence of the process to see whether the hypothesis that valuation is an issue for the German funds holds any credibility. It also discusses whether there is a wider issue for other funds of this nature or whether it is a parochial problem confined to Germany. The conclusions are that there is reason to believe that German valuation processes make over-valuation in a recession more likely than in other countries and that more direct research into the German valuation system is required to identify the issues which need to be addressed to make the valuation system more trusted.Property valuation, open ended funds, Germany

Exchange Rate Volatility and Macroeconomic Performance in Hong Kong.

In this paper evidence on whether Hong Kong's currency board arrangement, in place since 1983, has affected volatility of real macroeconomic variables is presented. Simple evidence on the relative volatilities of relevant macroeconomic variables pre and post 1983 is presented, before a more formal econometric framework is utilised to examine the linkages between the exchange rate and the real economy. It is found that the currency board period has been one of relative stability in Hong Kong, though it has also been a period where external factors have been relatively benign. Even after controlling for the external environment it is found that the currency board period is one of low macroeconomic volatility.EXCHANGE RATE ; MACROECONOMICS ; FORECASTS

Thomas Hutchinson: Traitor to Freedom?

Thomas Hutchinson is perhaps one of the most controversial figures of the American Revolution. His Loyalist bent during a time when patriotism and devotion to the American cause was rampant and respected led to his being the target of raids and protests. His actions, particularly his correspondence to Britain regarding the political actions of Bostonians, caused many to question his motives and his allegiance. The following paper will examine Thomas Hutchinson’s Loyalist beliefs, where they originated, and how they affected his political and everyday life. It will examine Thomas Hutchinson’s role during America’s bid for freedom from the Mother Country

Liquidity in commercial property markets: deconstructing the transaction process

This paper draws from a wider research programme in the UK undertaken for the Investment Property Forum examining liquidity in commercial property. One aspect of liquidity is the process by which transactions occur including both how properties are selected for sale and the time taken to transact. The paper analyses data from three organisations; a property company, a major financial institution and an asset management company, formally a major public sector pension fund. The data covers three market states and includes sales completed in 1995, 2000 and 2002 in the UK. The research interviewed key individuals within the three organisations to identify any common patterns of activity within the sale process and also identified the timing of 187 actual transactions from inception of the sale to completion. The research developed a taxonomy of the transaction process. Interviews with vendors indicated that decisions to sell were a product of a combination of portfolio, specific property and market based issues. Properties were generally not kept in a “readiness for sale” state. The average time from first decision to sell the actual property to completion had a mean time of 298 days and a median of 190 days. It is concluded that this study may underestimate the true length of the time to transact for two reasons. Firstly, the pre-marketing period is rarely recorded in transaction files. Secondly, and more fundamentally, studies of sold properties may contain selection bias. The research indicated that vendors tended to sell properties which it was perceived could be sold at a ‘fair’ price in a reasonable period of time